Alcheringa 2012, Urban Odyssey - a little experience

-
I was invited as one of the judges along with my brother Ankur Deka at the Alcheringa festival of Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati in Feb, 2012. We judged two music contests - 'Raga High' and 'Rhapsody'. We had the privilege of meeting some of the renowned musicians, film-stars, directors and theater personalities. Some of the photos of the festival below.

Matan Shmuely ( drummer of the Death Metal band from Israel 'Orphaned Land') and Jim Ankan Deka
 Noam Rubinstein, Fyodor Makarov and Yolana Zimmerman of 'Ish Theatre' a theatre group from Israel performing the play "Odysseus Chaoticus", based on clowning and mime at Alcheringa, 2012


Jim Ankan Deka and Ankur Deka (judges for Raga High music competition)
Alcheringa, 2012, IIT, Guwahati
Soulmates, the blues band from Shillong performing at Alcheringa, 2012
A view from the IIT Guwahati guest house
Bong Bratz, the band from calcutta winning the 2nd place at 'Raga High' in Alcheringa, IIT Guwahati


Popular posts from this blog

Chador-mekhela, drums, keyboard, guitar, cultural activists, bihu and Being Assamese

-
Image
Courtesy: Raul de la Nuez Recently, in one of the Bihu functions (April, 2015), one of the leading female singers of Assam was not allowed to sing for not wearing Chador Mekhela by the committee members. (Chador-mekhela is the traditional Assamese dress worn by women.) What I feel personally in that case, even the male singers, including Papon, Zubben, should be asked to wear Dhoti-Kurta or ban them too. Why this unfairly prejudiced view? And all the committee members also should be wearing Dhoti-Kurta or Chador-Mekhela all the time. Do they? Embarrassing moment for Assam and Assamese culture. This is not culture, This is not Bihu. I understand that cloths are integral part of any culture; but cloths alone can't defy culture. If one has to follow one of the cultural aspects with full devotion, he has to follow everything with complete honesty and sincerity. That means, if one has to wear mekhela-chador to defy bihu, she can't actually use keyboard, guitar or drums in bih...
Read more

Pork, Naga pork and pork chops in Bangalore

-
Image
When I landed in Bangalore in 2006, the first thing I noticed was inaccessibility of restaurants or food joints serving pork items. I had always been a die hard fan of meat - specially pork. And it became more important for me to search for an eatery that has excellent 'pork' service than a job or a cot with roof. It took me almost six years before I could make a list of handful of eating joints where one can get an impressive menu of pork dishes. I got the taste of Naga pork (pork from Nagaland), Chinese pork, Thai pork (pork from Thailand), Italian pork and pork momos. Below are few joints where one can get hold of these. This is to help people who come mainly from North-East India to Bangalore in search of job. They would rather spend (waste) their time searching for work and a structure that provides privacy than pork. The Naga Kitchen (Try smoked pork with bamboo shoot or smoked pork thali) Koramangala 112, 6th Cross, 6th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore - 080 4167...
Read more

Copied songs of Bollywood - music piracy?

-
Image
There are hundreds of songs in Bollywood which are directly copied, adopted or inspired from other songs. Some of these songs saw huge success in the Bollywood film industry. What I don't understand is, where we have certain music directors who have been engaged in making their own music and mark, how can another bunch think of coping the tunes of some other songs and present as their own work? Well, below are few very famous Hindi film songs which got the popularity among Indian people, but actually were adopted or copied from works by other musicians and music directors. Original song TAK BISAKAH from the album Alexandria (2005) by Peterpan ZIGEUNERJUNGE released as a single in 1967 by Alexandra (Doris Treitz Nefedov) YA GHALI (Arabic song) from the album Qissati (2002) by Guitara AH REUM DA OON SA RAM from the Korean series Nae ireumeun Kim Sam-soon (2005) by Seo Yoo Suk RETURN TO THE ALAMO (an instrumental track) from the album Tasty (1977) by The Shadows (Orches...
Read more